


Calm Before the Storm

by ritsuko



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Attraction, Emotional Manipulation, Gen, M/M, slight shipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-09
Updated: 2013-06-16
Packaged: 2017-12-14 09:55:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ritsuko/pseuds/ritsuko
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He should hate him. But he doesn't.</p><p>Khan/Kirk-ish?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This scene takes place in the brig, right before the Vengeance arrives. Some slight liberties taken, mostly that after Khan says 'Is there anything you wouldn't do for your family?', Spock left for the bridge. Or something. Leaving Khan and Jim alone. Yes. Sure. lol

He should hate him. He knows that he should. This man, who has caused so much pain, so much loss. The destruction in London and in San Francisco. The death of his mentor and friend, Christopher Pike. But as Captain James T. Kirk stares at the fugitive John Harrison, no, Khan, his baby blues betray him. The fury that once made them burn hot has dulled to a new fire, one of compassion and empathy.

Oh, he still despises Khan, wants to see him tried for his crimes, brought to justice for his destruction and murders. . . but at the same time there is still a vague sense of attraction that he can feel for the superhuman.

"Is something troubling you, Captain?" comes the silky drawl, accented voice ghosting over him like a sheet being pulled from his body to leave him exposed. Kirk represses a shiver, gritting his teeth and glaring at the other man.

"Just thinking of all of the damage you have caused."

"Oh this is hardly the end of it. There is still much more to come." Something flickers behind the taller mans eyes.

Jim frowns, glaring at the genetically perfect man. "Not if I have anything to do with it. You've caused more than enough trouble to keep going unchecked."

"But that's what you like, isn't it Captain?" Khan stands, closing the distance between him and the glass of the prison in only three steps. "Trouble?" He places slim fingers on the glass, as if reaching out to the blonde. The younger man stiffens, staring at the hand suspended between the two, gritting his teeth slightly. 

"Don't you presume that you know me." 

"Oh, but 'Captain', I -do- know you, Jim. Kirk." Khan enunciates each perfectly clipped word. The sarcasm that laces that perfect voice does make him shiver, but not in fear, more like. . . anticipation. "A wild card. A loose cannon. A boy in a captain's chair playing at being a man all because his father died a hero and he never had a soul to care for him. Your mother, always running off to the stars, leaving you with a relative. Always going out of your way to rebel. No purpose in your life until you had a chance to wheedle your way onto this ship to form a makeshift family of your own. Oh, believe me captain. I do know you. And how important family can be."

Jim doesn't realize that his hands are balled into fists at his side until Khan finishes speaking, and swallows. "You read my files?" He asks, slightly uncertain, and the corner of the other man's mouth slightly twitches upwards.

"Yes, but I didn't have to. You wear your heart on your sleeve, Jim." The other man practically purrs in dulcet tones, eyes flashing like a stormy sea. "We are very much alike."

The blonde wants to deny Khan's claim, to turn on his heel and leave the other man to his impenetrable prison, but the words stick in his throat. He can't tear his gaze from those eyes, so deep, so blue, so protective and troubled and hurt and seething with rage. So many feelings conveyed in those storm filled eyes. When Jim thinks about it, he can't honestly admit that if he were in the super human's boots, he would not feel so betrayed, and used, and full of wrath. 

". . . you can tell. I know you can. Admiral Marcus is a traitor to your Starfleet. One who will stop at nothing, will slaughter and use anyone who gets in the way of his petty war mongering schemes. He will use you and your crew until you are of no use to him, and then obliterate you. And there is only one thing that he will want from you now." The dark haired man clenches his fist again the glass, voice still even and matter of fact. Jim purses his lips and finally manages to wrench his gaze away, focusing on a point on the wall past Khan's head. He is still aware of that azure gaze focused on him, but tries not to let it phase him.

"If everything that you have told us is true, there is still a lot that you have to answer for. Lets say Marcus is detained, and tried for his crimes. What happens to you then? Your crew? History states you were a dictator, and you all obliterated everything that wasn't perfect. You think I'm going to let you just destroy all of humanity?" Kirk spits. 

His eyes quickly dart back to the other man when a low rumbling chuckle escapes those perfectly sculpted lips. "Oh, Captain. You misunderstand. Surely there are some bits of perfection that can be found in humanity." The look that Khan gives him sends a shock through his whole being, hairs standing on end. Not fear, something more heated and electric. Jim shifts, swallows, and looks Khan square in the eye. The look in those eyes is calculating, appraising. Not full of disdain, but full of. . . amusement? Arousal? The blonde couldn't tell.

Jim is about to open his mouth when the intercom snaps on, Sulu's voice carrying over the speakers. "Proximity alert sir, there's a ship at warp heading right for us."

There is a moment of silence, before Khan speaks, gaze cold and serious once more. "That will be for me. Choose these moments wisely, Captain. Before you regret your decisions and lose everything." Their gaze unbroken, Kirk twists his mouth in a grimace.

"Guards," he intones into the intercom, "Escort Khan to the med bay. Post six security officers on him."

Singh stares at him, storm in his eyes quieting, and smiles, just a sharp tug in the corner of his mouth. For a split second, Jim wonders what he tastes like. 

Then he runs for the bridge, those thoughts pushed aside for his own family.


	2. Chapter 2

If there is one thing he can give the foolish human standing beside him, it is that at least the man has some balls.

One second they are crouched, arms brushing each other, and then they are hurtling through the blackness of space, dodging debris and trying to remain on target. Kirk, the fool that he is, ends up way off course and Khan wonders for a moment if this might just be the perfect opportunity to lose the Captain, to continue his mission to destroy the Admiral. After all, none of them can be trusted. He has been shown that from the moment that he had been ripped from his cryogenic sleep and made to work like a slave under constant threats to his crew's well-being. No matter what Jim might say, in the end, Khan knows that he will be betrayed. It's human nature, every man for himself.

He can hear the slight edge of panic in the young man's voice as his screens go dead. He thinks of those azure eyes, so full of determination and ambition. Thinks of the screen of his helmet finally cracking and the vacuum of space sucking all of the oxygen out of his lungs, eyes bursting until nothing is left by a cold hollow shell of skin and bone.

He sighs, irritated with himself. It makes no sense. Still, he corrects course to sidle next to the blonde, uses communications to guide him to the right vantage point. Grabs Jim in a bearhug and clings tight to the other man, proximity forcing them to stare in each others eyes as their target gets closer and closer to them, yet unopened. He can feel the smaller man tense, calling for the man inside to open the door, so frantically that for a moment he himself is almost worried that they will die here, smashed against the hull of the Vengeance with no vengeance of his own. Oh the irony. He can only hope that the Vulcan will think to use the torpedoes on the dreadnaught ship. They will not destroy the warship, but at least his crew will be free from the same fate he has had to endure. If even one of them is saved from the hands of Marcus, even by death, it will be worth it to him. 

Khan forced his eyes to stay open, calculating trajectory, as the hatch finally, thankfully, opens to minimalize the possibility that either of them will smack into the siding and rip an arm off or slam into the hull like a bug on a windshield. As they hurtle through the hanger he gazes deeply into Jim's eyes, impossibly blue and full of shock as they roll over and over until finally skidding to a stop. Oh yes, there is something there, something that Khan recognizes but fails to acknowledge, although his hands betray him, holding on a second too long, caressing down the back of the other man's space suit, impossible to feel but for the pressure. Kirk still notices though, gasps at the contact. He finally lets his hands fall to his sides. Kirk is motionless, blue gaze searching his own.

"You are on me, Captain." Khan intones, and the other man almost blushes in his rush to scoot off of him. Quickly, the super human methodically takes the flight suit off as Kirk speaks to his man on the inside. Not that he cares anything about this newcomer. He only has one goal now- navigate the ship to the bridge, and destroy Marcus.

As painfully as possible.

Still, he can feel those baby blues boring the back of his head. Untrusting. It doesn't matter. He will do what he has to. Kill them all if he must.

But in the back of his mind, he wonders if Jim Kirk might be an exception.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Can Khan be stopped?

When they reach the bridge, all hell breaks loose. Khan quickly dispatches Marcus' guards, strikes that Kirk is unsure if they are fatal or not. He can't afford to worry about them, not yet. He gives Scotty a look, and the other man gulps but nods. God, he hopes he's doing the right thing.

Khan quickly diminishes the distance between him in the admiral, hate burning in his eyes.

"You might want to stop, Mr. Singh. You come one step closer to me, and the Enterprise explodes. I have the full load of warheads of the Vengeance already targeted on that ship and your 72 miscreant friends will die if you so much lay a finger on me." The taller man pauses, muscles tensed, ready to strike. The Admiral meets his glare, unfaltering and smiles. "You thought you were so clever, didn't you?"

Jim takes a step forward. "Marcus, you touch my crew, and. . ." 

"And you'll what? You know how this is going to end, boy? I'm going to own you. You think I'm going to let any of your crew live if you even pretend you have the ability to cross me? I will rip every single member of your bridge to shreds in front of you if you even look at me the wrong way." Marcus chuckles, and Kirk feels fury, tastes it on the air, whether it's his or Khan's, he doesn't know. Kirk is white knuckling his phaser, and the admiral eyes it. "Now, drop it."

Kirk falters, but slowly starts to let go of the weapon, when something flashes out of the corner of his eye, a black blur. Marcus snaps his head in that direction and it's all Jim needs to raise the weapon and stun the older man. There is a look of incredulous fury as Marcus slides from the chair onto the floor, and in that second, Khan is on him. Carol screams, her father lying prone on the floor with a madman above him, manic and gleeful in his vengeance, ready to strike. 

"Wait!" Kirk's voice rings out, and to his surprise, Khan pauses, looking up briefly, the blue of his eyes the only bright thing about him. His face is twisted and ready for murder, but for this one second, Jim fully has his attention. "Scotty, take Carol out of here. We need to talk." 

The engineer complies, dragging the sobbing blonde from the room, and Jim slowly walks up to Khan's side. Every muscle is coiled, ready to spring at the slightest second, and Jim stares down at the Admiral, once strong and proud, reduced to a stunned, slack faced puddle at their feet.

"It would be easy you know. To kill him. It's what he was going to do anyway. And for what?" Jim laughs, a short bark that gets caught in his throat. "A war. With Klingons. Why does everything have to come down to that?"

"Because humans love conflict." Khan almost spits the words, vehement and knowing.

Jim frowns. "You seem so sure of that."

"Of course I am sure. That's why I was created. Why I have been used. Why I have been betrayed. Constantly used as a stepping stool for pathetic people."

"But you can be better than that." The captain sounds so sure of himself.

A laugh. "Of course. I AM better. That is the point, Captain. I was made better than any of you." 

"Wouldn't it be better to prove you are better? Let this scumbag live, shamed and kicked out of Starfleet? Tried for treason and murder and manipulation? Wouldn't that be a more torturous fate than killing him right here?" Jim slowly walks next to Khan, and places a hand gently on his shoulder. Eyes bluer than the neon azure of a ship's warp trails. "You kill him, Starfleet will stop at nothing to destroy you and your crew. You told me that they were the most important things to you. That you had been used. That you only wanted to be left alone. Wouldn't it be fair to your family, to yourself, if you could honestly just let Federation justice take it's course?"

Khan's eyes turn cold. "They will see me killed. For London. For San Francisco."

"Don't get me wrong. You DO deserve to be punished for what you did. You killed a man who was like a father to me. But at the same time, you were being manipulated. He betrayed you, Khan, but if you do this, if you kill him, there's no turning back. If you show mercy, if you approach the Federation for a fair trial, I will back you in whatever way I can. If I can help you or your crew, if it's in my power, I will make sure that I can help you. I promise."

The augment's face is suddenly close, impossibly close to his and he can feel the other man's breath on his upper lip. He smells of mint. "Don't make promises you can't keep, Captain."

"I swear to you Khan. I will not betray you in this. You deserve to have your family. You deserve freedom. If the Federation wills it." Jim proudly stands his ground, eye contact never wavering. The corner of Khan's mouth twitches upwards slightly, and for a moment Jim wants to taste the mint on the other man's mouth. His cheeks flush.

He barely sees the Admiral grasp the phaser in his hand and point before Khan deftly reaches down and pops the old man's arm out of his socket, the room filled with a scream of pain. The super human stands, glaring down at the admiral, face unreadable. "Such a shame you are so stupid, Marcus. You should have let me sleep." With that, there is a sickening crunch as Khan's boot slams down on Marcus' hand mangling the appendage with his heel, blood and bone and phaser pieces mingling. Jim thinks he might be sick.

The raven haired man turns to look at Jim, cold eyes burning. "I accept, Captain. I trust you will not break your word."

Kirk can't tell if this monster of a man is the most attractive, or the most frightening creature he has ever seen.

**Author's Note:**

> Don't know if I intend to continue this. If there's a positive response, maybe?


End file.
